July 2, 2012

Lego Calculator Can Do Anything Your Macbook Can (In Theory)

"Everyone reading this post can thank Alan Turing for the privilege. Turing is widely considered the father of computer science: he cracked Nazi crypto-codes during World War II and helped design the first working computer. But before all that, at the tender age of 24, Turing had the central theoretical insight behind every shiny gadget you know and love: a hypothetical, idealized computer called a Turing Machine."

Click through for a working demo Turing Machine, built from Lego pieces. It takes about five minutes for it to add 2 + 2, but demonstrates what your own computer is doing all day, every day.